It’s almost Halloween!! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I hate being scared, but I love costumes and dressing up (and candy!) so these Red Velvet Cupcakes are dressed up in their bloody best, complete with edible hatchets, cleavers, and butcher knives!!
I’ve never actually made red velvet cake before, but I’ve certainly eaten my fair share! It’s pretty similar to other buttermilk cake recipes I’ve made. (Hooray for buttermilk! The cupcakes were incredibly moist!) They have a light chocolate flavor, but not enough cocoa in them to turn the batter brown or to call it chocolate cake. The color is derived from a LOT of red food coloring. Too much food coloring, and they will taste artificial. Not enough and the brown will start to take over.
In true “doesn’t follow instructions well” Nina fashion, I messed with the coloring a bit. Disadvantage #1: I don’t use traditional liquid food coloring. I have an extra concentrated gel coloring that is mainly for coloring buttercream. The amount of food coloring in the recipe is for the traditional type, so I was going to be winging it with ratios anyway. Disadvantage #2: I didn’t want the bright Valentine’s Day Red Velvet color. I wanted more of a deep red shade. Disadvantage #3: You add the food coloring before you add the dry ingredients (including the cocoa) so the shade you have when adding the food coloring is not the “finished” color. Because I couldn’t use the recipe amount, I had to guess.
I’ll add a fourth disadvantage: I started with Red food coloring, discovered I had a Crimson one in the box as well, and mixed the two. I also didn’t keep track of how many drops I was using so I could replicate the color, and I added more after I added the dry ingredients. I wouldn’t recommend doing that. The food coloring doesn’t mix in evenly at that stage. I’ll make and educated guess that’s why the recipe tells you to do it with the oil and vanilla. It’s almost like someone (like the blogger from Live Well, Bake Often) tested it and told me how to do it right the first time so I didn’t need to make the mistake for myself…
They almost looked a pinkish brown when I got to the point where I was afraid to add any more drops. I hoped they would darken as they baked. Hooray! They did! They turned out exactly the rich red I envisioned. Too bad I didn’t keep track. Considering how much coloring this took, though, I would likely just buy the traditional type of food coloring to do the next batch anyway!
Cream cheese buttercream goes hand in hand with Red Velvet Cupcakes, so I definitely whipped up a batch of that! To make them look bloody, I made a quick raspberry coulis. I had to fiddle with this recipe a little, since I used fresh raspberries instead of frozen, which made the coulis pretty watery. After I strained the mixture, I reduced it on the stovetop until I got a consistency that would look like blood dripping, but wouldn’t be too watery. I added a couple of drops of coloring to the coulis as well to make sure the “blood” was very red!
Last, but not least, I topped each with a tiny Wilton-brand murder weapon! I liked the cleavers best of all!
They were absolutely delicious and a huge hit at the Halloween party I baked them for! I’d highly recommend tossing away the toppers. They are edible, but they may break your teeth in the process! I was really proud of the way they looked and tasted! Bonus that the decorating was supposed to look like a crime scene, so being a bit messy wasn’t a big deal! I’m a big fan of things that don’t need precision or perfection! The cake itself was perfect: super moist, just a hint of chocolate, basically a vessel for loads of cream cheese frosting, and that surprise pop of tart raspberry made this a true Trick-or-Treat Triumph!!!
Red Velvet Cupcakes
Delicious, moist, red velvet cupcakes with a cream cheese buttercream and a raspberry coulis. Perfect for Halloween (or any time!)
Ingredients
- For the Red Velvet Cupcakes:
- 2 2/3 cups (290 g) Cake Flour
- 4 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter (softened)
- 2 cups (400 g) Granulated Sugar
- 2 Eggs (room temperature)
- 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
- 2 Tbsp Red Liquid Food Coloring
- 2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Distilled White Vinegar
- 1 1/3 cup Buttermilk (room temperature)
- For the Cream Cheese Buttercream:
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter (softened)
- 2 (8 oz) packages Cream Cheese (softened)
- 4 cups (480 g) Powdered Sugar
- 2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
- For the Raspberry Coulis:
- 6 oz Raspberries (fresh or frozen-thawed)
- 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Water
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners
- Step 2 In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. If cocoa is clumpy, consider sifting. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar on medium speed for 4-5 minutes. Add eggs and mix until fully combined. Mix in oil, food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed
- Step 3 Mix in dry ingredients in three additions, adding half of the buttermilk in between each addition. Mix each until just combined, being careful not to over-mix
- Step 4 Fill cupcake liners a little over halfway full. Bake each pan (best to do one at a time) for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean
- Step 5 Cool cupcakes on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting
- Step 6 In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat cream cheese by itself until smooth. Add butter and mix for another minute until well combined and smooth. Add in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract and continue mixing until fully combined and fluffy. Pipe frosting onto fully cooled cupcakes. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve
- Step 7 Make raspberry coulis by combining water and sugar in a microwave safe bowl. Cook on high for 2 minutes. Stir for 5-10 seconds to make sure the sugar is dissolved. Combine raspberries and hot sugar syrup in a blender or food processor. Puree until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and discard seeds. Add sauce to a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring down as needed until coulis thickens to coat the back of a spoon. It will thicken a bit more as it cools. If, when cool, it is too watery, you can heat again to thicken further. It should have a consistency similar to chocolate syrup: will drip, but not spread. Drizzle over the chilled cupcakes as close to serving as possible. Top with an edible murder weapon!
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